Sociology

 
Introduction
 
Sociology is the systematic and scientific study of human social life. Sociologists study people as they form groups
and interact with one another. The groups they study may be small, such as married couples, or large, such as a
subculture of suburban teenagers. Sociology places special emphasis on studying societies, both as individual
entities and as elements of a global perspective. 
 
The Birth of Sociology
 
Auguste Comte (1798–1857), widely considered the “father of sociology,” became interested in studying society
because of the changes that took place as a result of the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. During
the French Revolution, which began in 1789, France’s class system changed dramatically. Aristocrats suddenly lost
their money and status, while peasants, who had been at the bottom of the social ladder, rose to more powerful
and influential positions. The Industrial Revolution followed on the heels of the French Revolution, unfolding in
Western Europe throughout the 1800s. During the Industrial Revolution, people abandoned a life of agriculture
and moved to cities to find factory jobs. They worked long hours in dangerous conditions for low pay. New social
problems emerged and, for many decades, little was done to address the plight of the urban poor.
Comte looked at the extensive changes brought about by the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution and
tried to make sense of them. He felt that the social sciences that existed at the time, including political science and
history, couldn’t adequately explain the chaos and upheaval he saw around him. He decided an entirely new
science was needed. He called this new science sociology, which comes from the root word socius, a Latin word
that means “companion” or “being with others.”
 
Comte decided that to understand society, one had to follow certain procedures, which we know now as the
scientific method. The scientific method is the use of systematic and specific procedures to test theories in
psychology, the natural sciences, and other fields. Comte also believed in positivism, which is the application of the
scientific method to the analysis of society. Comte felt that sociology could be used to inspire social reforms and
generally make a society a better place for its members. Comte’s standards of “research” were not nearly as
exacting as today’s, and most of his conclusions have been disregarded, as they were based mostly on observation
rather than serious investigation. 
 
In the United States, sociology was first taught as an academic discipline at the University of Kansas in 1890, at the
University of Chicago in 1892, and at Atlanta University in 1897. Over time, it spread to other universities in North
America. The first department of sociology opened at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, in 1922, followed by
sociology departments at Harvard University in 1930 and at the University of California at Berkeley in the 1950s.

Types of Sociology
 
Not all universities approach sociology the same way, and the new science evolved differently depending on where
it was taught and who was teaching it. The two major types of sociology that emerged were qualitative sociology
and quantitative sociology. Today, most universities use both qualitative and quantitative methods of inquiry, and
one method is not necessarily better than the other.
 
Qualitative Sociology
At the University of Chicago, Albion Small (1854–1926) developed qualitative sociology, which is concerned
mainly with trying to obtain an accurate picture of a group and how it operates in the world. Small and his
followers were particularly interested in understanding how immigration was affecting the city and its residents.
From the middle of the nineteenth century to roughly the middle of the twentieth century, massive numbers of
people immigrated to the United States from a variety of countries. Chicago in particular attracted many
immigrants from Poland. Early sociologists were fascinated by the social changes they saw taking place and began
conducting qualitative studies that involved personal interviews and observations of ethnic rituals and ceremonies.
 
Some University of Chicago sociologists actually went back to Poland to interview people who were about to
immigrate to the United States, who had relatives who were immigrants, or who had no intention of immigrating
anywhere. In keeping with the spirit of qualitative sociology, the researchers felt that they could understand the
experiences of Polish immigrants only if they also understood their reality and experiences before they left their
homeland.
 
Today, qualitative sociology emphasizes understanding individuals’ experiences by examining their books,
television programs, interactions, and ceremonies, among other elements. For example, a sociologist hoping to
understand the experiences of emergency medical technicians (EMTs) might spend time riding in the backs of
ambulances as the EMTs go out on calls.
 
Quantitative Sociology
 
Sociology at Harvard University developed differently. Like the University of Chicago sociologists, Harvard
sociologists wanted to understand the immigrant experience, but they went about their research in a quantitative
way. Quantitative sociology relies on statistical analysis to understand experiences and trends. While some
researchers at Harvard did talk to people and observe them, many preferred to remain within the confines of the
university and quantify their data to render it suitable for statistical manipulation.
 
The Other Social Sciences
 
Social sciences concern people’s relationships and interactions with one another. Sociology, with its emphasis on
social life, falls into this category. A multidisciplinary field, sociology draws from a variety of other social sciences,
including anthropology, political science, psychology, and economics.
 
Anthropology
Anthropology concerns individual cultures in a society, rather than the society as a whole. Traditionally, it focuses
on what might be termed “primitive” cultures, such as the Yanomamo people of the South American jungle, who
live much the same way they did hundreds of years ago. Anthropologists place special emphasis on language,
kinship patterns, and cultural artifacts.
 
Political Science
 
Political science concerns the governments of various societies. It considers what kind of government a society has,
how it formed, and how individuals attain positions of power within a particular government. Political science also
concerns the relation of people in a society to whatever form of government they have.
 
Psychology
 
Psychology takes the individual out of his or her social circumstances and examines the mental processes that
occur within that person. Psychologists study the human brain and how it functions, considering issues such as
memory, dreams, learning, and perception.
 
Economics
 
Economics focuses on the production and distribution of society’s goods and services. Economists study why a
society chooses to produce what it does, how money is exchanged, and how people interact and cooperate to
produce goods.
 
What Sociologists Do
 
People with training in sociology pursue a variety of different career and research paths. Because “society” is such
a broad field of study, a background in sociology helps support dozens of different career choices. What follows are
several broad areas in which sociologists frequently choose to apply their skills and interests.
 
Social Welfare
 
Some people pursue degrees in sociology because they want to change society for the better. They study problems
such as poverty, prejudice, and world hunger and attempt to find solutions. Jobs that relate to these kinds of
interests include:
 
 Social worker
 Child welfare worker
 Adoption agency worker
 Foreign aid worker
 Peace Corps/VISTA volunteer
 Clergy
Crime and Deviance
 
Many sociologists focus their research on understanding the roots of criminal and deviant behavior. Sociologists
who focus on crime and deviance may conduct studies of juvenile delinquents, female criminals, or other
subgroups of offenders. A background in this type of sociology prepares people for careers such as:
 
 Law enforcement officer
 Attorney
 Prison administrator
Healthcare
 
An understanding of changing demographics and culture is essential for keeping members of a society healthy.
Some sociologists apply their knowledge to the field of healthcare. They might take the following kinds of jobs:
 
 Doctor
 Psychiatrist
 Marriage or family counselor
International Relations and Diplomacy
 
Maintaining good relations with other societies is always important. Sociologists who specialize in international
relations must understand the intricacies of how their society interacts with others. Interest in international
relations might lead to such jobs as:
 
 Diplomat
 Public relations representative
 Government communications worker
Education
 
Many people study sociology because they want to develop more effective ways to educate a society’s youth or
because they want to continue learning and teaching about sociology itself. Such people might hold the following
types of jobs:
 
 K-12 teacher
 College professor
 Educational policy-maker
 
It’s important to note the difference between sociology and social work. Social work is an applied science, since it
is designed to solve a specific problem in a particular setting. Social work takes the principles found in sociology
and applies them to a particular issue. For example, current sociological research indicates that men are more
likely than women to commit suicide and that white people are more likely to take their own lives than black
people. A social worker might take that knowledge and apply it to the real world by tailoring suicide-prevention
programs to focus on the needs of white males.
 
This list covers just a handful of the possible directions your studies in sociology may take you. As you’ll learn
throughout your sociology course, a thorough understanding of the workings of society is applicable to an endless
number of career paths.
Society and Culture
 
The society in which we live determines everything from the food we eat to the choices we make. The word
society comes from the latin root socius, meaning “companion” or “being with others.” A society consists of people
who share a territory, who interact with each other, and who share a culture. Some societies are, in fact, groups of
people united by friendship or common interests. Our respective societies teach us how to behave, what to
believe, and how we’ll be punished if we don’t follow the laws or customs in place.
 
Sociologists study the way people learn about their own society’s cultures and how they discover their place within
those cultures. They also examine the ways in which people from differing cultures interact and sometimes clash—
and how mutual understanding and respect might be reached.

What Is a Society?
 
According to sociologists, a society is a group of people with common territory, interaction, and culture. Social
groups consist of two or more people who interact and identify with one another.
 
 Territory: Most countries have formal boundaries and territory that the world recognizes as theirs.
However, a society’s boundaries don’t have to be geopolitical borders, such as the one between the
United States and Canada. Instead, members of a society, as well as nonmembers, must recognize
particular land as belonging to that society.
 Example:
The society of the Yanomamo has fluid but definable land boundaries. Located in a South American rain
forest, Yanamamo territory extends along the border of Brazil and Venezuela. While outsiders would have
a hard time determining where Yanomamo land begins and ends, the Yanomamo and their neighbors
have no trouble discerning which land is theirs and which is not.
 
 Interaction: Members of a society must come in contact with one another. If a group of people within a
country has no regular contact with another group, those groups cannot be considered part of the same
society. Geographic distance and language barriers can separate societies within a country.
Although Islam was practiced in both parts of the country, the residents of East Pakistan spoke Bengali,
while the residents of West Pakistan spoke Urdu. Geographic distance, language differences, and other
factors proved insurmountable. In 1971, the nation split into two countries, with West Pakistan assuming
the name Pakistan and East Pakistan becoming Bangladesh. Within each newly formed society, people
had a common culture, history, and language, and distance was no longer a factor.
 
 Culture: People of the same society share aspects of their culture, such as language or beliefs. Culture
refers to the language, values, beliefs, behavior, and material objects that constitute a people’s way of
life. It is a defining element of society.
Example:
Some features of American culture are the English language, a democratic system of government, cuisine
(such as hamburgers and corn on the cob), and a belief in individualism and freedom.
 
Pluralism
The United States is a society composed of many groups of people, some of whom originally belonged to other
societies. Sociologists consider the United States a pluralistic society, meaning it is built of many groups. As
societies modernize, they attract people from countries where there may be economic hardship, political unrest,
or religious persecution. Since the industrialized countries of the West were the first to modernize, these countries
tend to be more pluralistic than countries in other parts of the world.
 
Many people came to the United States between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Fleeing poverty
and religious persecution, these immigrants arrived in waves from Europe and Asia and helped create the pluralism
that makes the United States unique.
 
Pluralism in the Neighborhood
Both cities and regions reflect pluralism in the United States. Most major American cities have areas in which
people from particular backgrounds are concentrated, such as Little Italy in New York, Chinatown in San Francisco,
and Little Havana in Miami. Regionally, people of Mexican descent tend to live in those states that border Mexico.
Individuals of Cuban descent are concentrated in Florida. Spanish-speaking people from other Caribbean islands,
such as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, are more likely to live in the Northeast.
 
Assimilation
 
Some practices that are common in other societies will inevitably offend or contradict the values and beliefs of the
new society. Groups seeking to become part of a pluralistic society often have to give up many of their original
traditions in order to fit in—a process known as assimilation.
 
Example:
When people arrive in the United States from other countries, they most likely speak a foreign language. As they
live here, they generally learn at least some English, and many become fluent. Their children are most likely
bilingual, speaking English as well as the language of their parents. By the third generation, the language originally
spoken by their grandparents is often lost.
 
In pluralistic societies, groups do not have to give up all of their former beliefs and practices. Many groups within a
pluralistic society retain their ethnic traditions.
 
Example:
Although Chinese immigrants started arriving in the United States 150 years ago, Chinese-American communities
still follow some traditions, such as celebrating the Lunar New Year.
 
Melting Pot?
The United States is commonly referred to as a melting pot, a society in which people from different societies
blend together into a single mass. Some sociologists prefer the term “multicultural,” pointing out that even if a
group has been in this country for many generations, they probably still retain some of their original heritage. The
term “multiculturalism” recognizes the original heritages of millions of Americans, noting that Americans who are
originally from other societies do not necessarily have to lose their individual markers by melting into the
mainstream.
 
Equality
 
In a truly pluralistic society, no one group is officially considered more influential than another. In keeping with this
belief, the United States does not, for example, put a legal quota on how many Italian Americans can vote in
national elections, how many African Americans may run for public office, or how many Vietnamese Americans can
live on a certain street. However, powerful informal mechanisms, such as prejudice and discrimination, work to
keep many groups out of the political process or out of certain neighborhoods.
 
Types of Societies
 
The society we live in did not spring up overnight; human societies have evolved slowly over many millennia.
However, throughout history, technological developments have sometimes brought about dramatic change that
has propelled human society into its next age.
 
  
Hunting and Gathering Societies
 
Hunting and gathering societies survive by hunting game and gathering edible plants. Until about 12,000 years
ago, all societies were hunting and gathering societies.
 
There are five basic characteristics of hunting and gathering societies: 
 
1. The primary institution is the family, which decides how food is to be shared and how children are to be
socialized, and which provides for the protection of its members.
2. They tend to be small, with fewer than fifty members.
3. They tend to be nomadic, moving to new areas when the current food supply in a given area has been
exhausted.
4. Members display a high level of interdependence.
5. Labor division is based on sex: men hunt, and women gather.
The first social revolution—the domestication of plants and animals—led to the birth of the horticultural and
pastoral societies.
 
Twilight of the Hunter-Gatherers
Hunting and gathering societies are slowly disappearing, as the encroachment of civilization destroys the land they
depend on. The Pygmies in Africa are one of the few remaining such societies.
 
Horticultural Societies
 
In a horticultural society, hand tools are used to tend crops. The first horticultural societies sprang up about
10,000–12,000 years ago in the most fertile areas of the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. The tools they used
were simple: sticks or hoe-like instruments used to punch holes in the ground so that crops could be planted. With
the advent of horticultural machinery, people no longer had to depend on the gathering of edible plants—they
could now grow their own food. They no longer had to leave an area when the food supply was exhausted, as they
could stay in one place until the soil was depleted.
 
Pastoral Societies
 
A pastoral society relies on the domestication and breeding of animals for food. Some geographic regions, such as
the desert regions of North Africa, cannot support crops, so these societies learned how to domesticate and breed
animals. The members of a pastoral society must move only when the grazing land ceases to be usable. Many
pastoral societies still exist in Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia.
 
Job Specialization
As techniques for raising crops and domesticating and breeding animals improved, societies began to produce
more food than they needed. Societies also became larger and more permanently rooted to one location. For the
first time in human history, not everyone was engaged in the gathering or production of food. As a result, job
specialization emerged. While some people farmed or raised animals, others produced crafts, became involved in
trade, or provided such goods as farming tools or clothing.
 
Agricultural Societies
 

The invention of the plow during the horticultural and pastoral societies is considered the second social
revolution, and it led to the establishment of agricultural societies approximately five thousand to six thousand
years ago. Members of an agricultural or agrarian society tend crops with an animal harnessed to a plow. The use
of animals to pull a plow eventually led to the creation of cities and formed the basic structure of most modern
societies.
 
The development of agricultural societies followed this general sequence:
 
 Animals are used to pull plows.
 Larger areas of land can then be cultivated.
 As the soil is aerated during plowing, it yields more crops for longer periods of time.
 Productivity increases, and as long as there is plenty of food, people do not have to move.
 Towns form, and then cities.
  As crop yields are high, it is no longer necessary for every member of the society to engage in some form
of farming, so some people begin developing other skills. Job specialization increases.
 Fewer people are directly involved with the production of food, and the economy becomes more
complex.
Around this same time, the wheel was invented, along with writing, numbers, and what we would today call the
arts. However, the invention of the steam engine—the third social revolution—was what took humans from
agricultural to industrial society.
 
Roots of Gender Inequality
As people moved toward domesticating animals and using them to do work, males tended to dominate more of
the workforce, since physical strength was necessary to control animals. By the time societies became agricultural,
males all but dominated the production of food. Since then, more prestige has been accorded to traditionally male
jobs than to traditionally female jobs, and hence, to males more than to females.
 
Industrial Societies
 
An industrial society uses advanced sources of energy, rather than humans and animals, to run large machinery.
Industrialization began in the mid-1700s, when the steam engine was first used in Great Britain as a means of
running other machines. By the twentieth century, industrialized societies had changed dramatically:
 
 People and goods traversed much longer distances because of innovations in transportation, such as the
train and the steamship.
 Rural areas lost population because more and more people were engaged in factory work and had to
move to the cities.
 Fewer people were needed in agriculture, and societies became urbanized, which means that the
majority of the population lived within commuting distance of a major city.
 Suburbs grew up around cities to provide city-dwellers with alternative places to live.
The twentieth century also saw the invention of the automobile and the harnessing of electricity, leading to faster
and easier transportation, better food storage, mass communication, and much more. Occupational specialization
became even more pronounced, and a person’s vocation became more of an identifier than his or her family ties,
as was common in nonindustrial societies.
 
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
Sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies divided societies into two large categories: Gemeinschaft societies and Gesellschaft
societies. Gemeinschaft societies consist primarily of villages in which everyone knows everyone else. Relationships
are lifelong and based on kinship. A Gesellschaft society is modernized. People have little in common with one
another, and relationships are short term and based on self-interest, with little concern for the well-being of
others.
 
Postindustrial Societies
 
The Industrial Revolution transformed Western societies in many unexpected ways. All the machines and
inventions for producing and transporting goods reduced the need for human labor so much that the economy
transformed again, from an industrial to a postindustrial economy.
 
A postindustrial society, the type of society that has developed over the past few decades, features an economy
based on services and technology, not production. There are three major characteristics of a postindustrial
economy:
 
1. Focus on ideas: Tangible goods no longer drive the economy.
2. Need for higher education: Factory work does not require advanced training, and the new focus on
information and technology means that people must pursue greater education.
3. Shift in workplace from cities to homes: New communications technology allows work to be performed
from a variety of locations.
Mass Society
 
As industrialized societies grow and develop, they become increasingly different from their less industrialized
counterparts. As they become larger, they evolve into large, impersonal mass societies. In a mass society,
individual achievement is valued over kinship ties, and people often feel isolated from one another. Personal
incomes are generally high, and there is great diversity among people.
Norms
 
Every society has expectations about how its members should and should not behave. A norm is a guideline or an
expectation for behavior. Each society makes up its own rules for behavior and decides when those rules have
been violated and what to do about it. Norms change constantly.
 
How Norms Differ
 
Norms differ widely among societies, and they can even differ from group to group within the same society.
 
 Different settings: Wherever we go, expectations are placed on our behavior. Even within the same
society, these norms change from setting to setting.
Example:
The way we are expected to behave in church differs from the way we are expected to behave at a party, which
also differs from the way we should behave in a classroom.
 
 Different countries: Norms are place-specific, and what is considered appropriate in one country may be
considered highly inappropriate in another.
Example:
In some African countries, it’s acceptable for people in movie theaters to yell frequently and make loud comments
about the film. In the United States, people are expected to sit quietly during a movie, and shouting would be
unacceptable.
 
 Different time periods: Appropriate and inappropriate behavior often changes dramatically from one
generation to the next. Norms can and do shift over time.
Example:
In the United States in the 1950s, a woman almost never asked a man out on a date, nor did she pay for the date.
While some traditional norms for dating prevail, most women today feel comfortable asking men out on dates and
paying for some or even all of the expenses.
 
Norm Categories
 
Sociologists have separated norms into four categories: folkways, mores, laws, and taboos.
 
Folkways
 
A folkway is a norm for everyday behavior that people follow for the sake of convenience or tradition. People
practice folkways simply because they have done things that way for a long time. Violating a folkway does not
usually have serious consequences.
 
Example:
Holding the door open for a person right behind you is a folkway.
 
Mores
 
A more (pronounced MORE-ay) is a norm based on morality, or definitions of right and wrong. Since mores have
moral significance, people feel strongly about them, and violating a more usually results in disapproval.
 
Example:
Parents who believe in the more that only married people should live together will disapprove of their son living
with his girlfriend. They may consider their son’s action a violation of the moral guidelines for behavior.
 
Laws
 
A law is a norm that is written down and enforced by an official agency. Violating a law results in a specific
punishment.
 
Example:
It is illegal in most countries to drive a car while drunk, and a person violating this law may get cited for driving
under the influence (DUI), which may bring a fine, loss of driver’s license, or even jail time.
 
Taboos

A taboo is a norm that society holds so strongly that violating it results in extreme disgust. The violator is often
considered unfit to live in that society.
 
Example:
In most countries, cannibalism and incest are considered taboo. In some Muslim cultures, eating pork is taboo
because the pig is considered unclean.
 
Deviance
 
Where there are rules, there are rule breakers. Sociologists call the violation of a norm deviance. The word deviant
has taken on the negative connotation of someone who behaves in disgusting or immoral ways, but to sociologists,
a deviant is anyone who doesn’t follow a norm, in either a good way or a bad way. See Chapter 6 for more about
deviance.
 
Example:
Most people don’t graduate from college with a 4.0 grade point average, so sociologists view someone who does
graduate with a 4.0 as deviant. Likewise, most Americans get married at some point in their lives, so someone who
chooses not to marry is sociologically a deviant.
 
Although deviance can be good and even admirable, few societies could tolerate the chaos that would result from
every person doing whatever he or she pleased. Social control refers to the methods that societies devise to
encourage people to observe norms. The most common method for maintaining social control is the use of
sanctions, which are socially constructed expressions of approval or disapproval. Sanctions can be positive or
negative, and the ways societies devise to positively or negatively sanction behaviors are limited only by the
society’s imagination.
 
Positive Sanctions
 
A positive sanction rewards someone for following a norm and serves to encourage the continuance of a certain
type of behavior.
 
Example:
A person who performs well at his or her job and is given a salary raise or a promotion is receiving a positive
sanction. When parents reward a child with money for earning good grades, they are positively sanctioning that
child’s behavior.
 
Negative Sanctions
 
A negative sanction is a way of communicating that a society, or some group in that society, does not approve of a
particular behavior. The optimal effect of a negative sanction is to discourage the continuation of a certain type of
behavior.
 
Example:
Imprisoning a criminal for breaking the law, cutting off a thief’s hands for stealing, and taking away a teenager’s
television privileges for breaking curfew are all negative sanctions.
 
Positive or Negative?
A sanction is not always clearly positive or negative. A child who throws a temper tantrum may find he has
everyone’s attention, but while his parents might be telling him to stop, the attention he receives for his behavior
is actually a positive sanction. It increases the likelihood that he’ll do it again. Attention can be a powerful positive
sanction, while lack of attention can be a strong negative sanction.
 
 
Norms and Consequences
Norm Example Consequences for violation
     
Folkway Wearing a suit to an interview Raised eyebrow
     
More Only married couples should live together Conflicts with family members, disapproval
     
Law Laws against public nudity Imprisonment, monetary fine
      
Taboo Eating human flesh
Visible signs of disgust, expulsion from society
   
Status and Roles
 
Most people associate status with the prestige of a person’s lifestyle, education, or vocation. According to
sociologists, status describes the position a person occupies in a particular setting. We all occupy several statuses
and play the roles that may be associated with them. A role is the set of norms, values, behaviors, and personality
characteristics attached to a status. An individual may occupy the statuses of student, employee, and club
president and play one or more roles with each one.
 
Example:
Status as student
 
Role 1: Classroom: Attending class, taking notes, and communicating with the professor
 
Role 2: Fellow student: Participating in study groups, sharing ideas, quizzing other students
 
Status as employee
 
Role 1: Warehouse: Unloading boxes, labeling products, restocking shelves
 
Role 2: Customer service: Answering questions, solving problems, researching information
 
Status as club president
 
Role 1: Administrative: Running club meetings, delegating tasks to club members
 
Role 2: Public: Distributing flyers, answering questions, planning community volunteer activities
 

At any given time, the individual described above can also occupy the statuses of athlete, date, confidant, or a
number of others, depending on the setting. With each change of status, the individual plays a different role or
roles.
 
Society’s Definition of “Roles”
Societies decide what is considered appropriate role behavior for different statuses. For example, every society has
the “mother” status. However, some societies consider it inappropriate for a mother to assume the role of
authority in the family. Other societies ascribe lots of power to the status of mother. In some societies, students
are expected to be completely obedient to teachers. In American society, the student role involves asking the
teacher questions and even challenging the teacher’s statements.
 
Role Conflict
 
Role conflict results from the competing demands of two or more roles that vie for our time and energy. The more
statuses we have, and the more roles we take on, the more likely we are to experience role conflict.
 
A member of a nonindustrialized society generally has just a few statuses, such as spouse, parent, and villager. A
typical middle-class American woman, meanwhile, probably has many statuses, and therefore many roles. She may
be a mother, wife, neighbor, member of the PTA, employee, boss, town council president, and part-time student.
Because people in modernized societies have so many roles, they are more likely than people in nonindustrialized
societies to experience role conflict.
 
Example:
A working father is expected at work on time but is late because one of his children is sick. His roles as father and
employee are then in conflict. A role for his father status dictates that he care for his sick child, while a role for his
employee status demands that he arrive at work on time.
Culture
 
Culture is everything made, learned, or shared by the members of a society, including values, beliefs, behaviors,
and material objects.
 
Culture is learned, and it varies tremendously from society to society. We begin learning our culture from the
moment we’re born, as the people who raise us encourage certain behaviors and teach their version of right and
wrong. Although cultures vary dramatically, they all consist of two parts: material culture and nonmaterial culture.
 
Material Culture
 
Material culture consists of the concrete, visible parts of a culture, such as food, clothing, cars, weapons, and
buildings. Aspects of material culture differ from society to society. Here are a few features of modern material
culture in the United States:
 
 Soy lattes
 CD burners
 Running shoes
 iPods
 Lifestyle magazines
 Organic vegetables
 Sport utility vehicles
Example:
One common form of material culture is jewelry that indicates a person’s status as married. In American
culture, people wear a metal band on the ring finger of the left hand to show that they are married. In smaller,
nonindustrialized societies, everyone knows everyone else, so no such sign is needed. In certain parts of India,
women wear a necklace to indicate that they are married. In Northern Europe, married people wear wedding
bands on the right hand.
 
Nonmaterial Culture
 
Nonmaterial culture consists of the intangible aspects of a culture, such as values and beliefs. Nonmaterial culture
consists of concepts and ideas that shape who we are and make us different from members of other societies.
 
 A value is a culturally approved concept about what is right or wrong, desirable or undesirable. Values are
a culture’s principles about how things should be and differ greatly from society to society.
Example:
In the United States today, many women value thinness as a standard of beauty. In Ghana, however, most people
would consider American fashion models sickly and undesirable. In that culture and others, robustness is valued
over skinniness as a marker of beauty.
 
Cult of the Car
Automobile ownership clearly illustrates the American value of material acquisition. Americans love cars, and
society is constructed to accommodate them. We have a system of interstate roadways, convenient gas stations,
and many car dealerships. Businesses consider where patrons will park, and architects design homes with spaces
for one or more cars. A society that values the environment more than the material acquisition might refuse to
build roadways because of the damage they might do to the local wildlife.
 
 Beliefs are specific ideas that people feel to be true. Values support beliefs.
Example:
Americans believe in freedom of speech, and they believe they should be able to say whatever they want without
fear of reprisal from the government. Many Americans value freedom as the right of all people and believe that
people should be left to pursue their lives the way they want with minimal interference from the government.
 
Hierarchy of Cultures
 
In societies where there are different kinds of people, one group is usually larger or more powerful than the
others. Generally, societies consist of a dominant culture, subcultures, and countercultures.
 
Dominant Culture
 
The dominant culture in a society is the group whose members are in the majority or who wield more power than
other groups. In the United States, the dominant culture is that of white, middle-class, Protestant people of
northern European descent. There are more white people here than African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans,
or Native Americans, and there are more middle-class people than there are rich or poor people.
 
The Majority Doesn’t Always Rule
A group does not have to be a majority to be a dominant culture. In South Africa, there are four times as many
black Africans as white Africans of European descent. Yet under a system of racial segregation and domination
called apartheid, which was legally in effect from 1948 to 1991, the white population managed to hold political and
economic power. South African whites thus were the dominant culture.
 
Subculture
 
A subculture is a group that lives differently from, but not opposed to, the dominant culture. A subculture is a
culture within a culture. For example, Jews form a subculture in the largely Christian United States. Catholics also
form a subculture, since the majority of Americans are Protestant. Members of these subcultures do belong to the
dominant culture but also have a material and nonmaterial culture specific to their subcultures.
 
Religion is not the only defining aspect of a subculture. The following elements can also define a subculture:
 
 Occupation
  Financial status
 Political ideals
 Sexual orientation
 Age
 Geographical location
 Hobbies
W. E. B. Du Bois
 
One important theorist of subcultures was W. E. B. Du Bois. The first African American to receive a Ph.D. from
Harvard University, Du Bois was one of the most renowned sociologists of race relations in the United States. He
described racism as the predominant problem that American culture faced in the twentieth century. He paid
special attention to the effects of what he called the “color line” in America and studied the impact of racism on
both whites and blacks.
 
Counterculture
 
A counterculture is a subculture that opposes the dominant culture. For example, the hippies of the 1960s were a
counterculture, as they opposed the core values held by most citizens of the United States. Hippies eschewed
material possessions and the accumulation of wealth, rejected the traditional marriage norm, and espoused what
they called free love, which was basically the freedom to have sex outside of marriage. Though hippies were
generally peaceful, they opposed almost everything the dominant culture stood for.
 
Not all countercultures are nonviolent. In 1995, the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was blown up,
killing 168 people and injuring many others. That horrific crime brought to light the existence of another
counterculture in the United States: rural militias. While such groups go by several names, their members tend to
be people who despise the U.S. government for what they see as its interference in the lives of citizens.
 
Counterculture and Politics
In many parts of the world, ethnic, political, or religious groups within larger nations struggle for independence or
dominance. For generations, the Basque separatist group ETA (Freedom for the Basque Homeland) in northern
Spain has violently pursued the goal of independence for the Basque regions. In Northern Ireland, which is
governed by Great Britian, Sinn Fein is a violent political organization whose stated goal is the end of British rule in
Ireland. ETA and Sinn Fein are examples of countercultures.
 
The Interaction of Cultures
 
When many different cultures live together in one society, misunderstandings, biases, and judgments are
inevitable—but fair evaluations, relationships, and learning experiences are also possible. Cultures cannot remain
entirely separate, no matter how different they are, and the resulting effects are varied and widespread.
 
Ethnocentrism
 

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge another culture by the standards of one’s own culture. Ethnocentrism
usually entails the notion that one’s own culture is superior to everyone else’s.
 
Example:
Americans tend to value technological advancement, industrialization, and the accumulation of wealth. An
American, applying his or her own standards to a culture that does not value those things, may view that culture as
“primitive” or “uncivilized.” Such labels are not just statements but judgments: they imply that it is better to be
urbanized and industrialized than it is to carry on another kind of lifestyle.
 
     People in other cultures, such as some European cultures, also see American culture through the lens of their
own ethnocentrism. To members of other cultures, Americans may seem materialistic, brash, or arrogant, with
little intellectual subtlety or spirituality. Many Americans would disagree with that assessment.
 
Exported Ethnocentrism
When missionaries go to other countries to convert the local people to their brand of religion, they are practicing
ethnocentrism. Missionaries usually want to convert people to their own forms of worship, and they sometimes
encourage people to give up their religious beliefs.
 
Cultural Relativism
 
The opposite of ethnocentrism is cultural relativism—the examination of a cultural trait within the context of that
culture. Cultural relativists try to understand unfamiliar values and norms without judging them and without
applying the standards of their own culture.
 
Example:
In India, the concepts of dating, love, and marriage differ from those in the United States. Though love is
important, parents choose their children’s spouses according to similarities in educational levels, religions, castes,
and family backgrounds. The families trust that love will develop over time but believe that a wedding can take
place without it. From an American ethnocentric perspective, arranging marriages appears to be a custom that
limits individual freedom. On the other hand, a cultural relativist would acknowledge that arranged marriages
serve an important function in India and other cultures.
 
Culture Shock
 
The practices of other cultures can be and often are jarring, and even the most adept cultural relativist is not
immune to culture shock. Culture shock is the surprise, disorientation, and fear people can experience when they
encounter a new culture.
 
Example:
Visitors to Western Europe from Islamic countries often experience culture shock when they see women wearing
what they consider to be revealing clothing and unmarried couples kissing or holding hands in public, because
these behaviors are forbidden or frowned upon in their own cultures.
 
Culture Shock at Home
Encountering an unfamiliar subculture in one’s own country, spending time with very rich or very poor people, or
spending time with a group of people who hold radical or unfamiliar political views can produce culture shock just
as much as encountering a brand-new culture in a foreign country.
 
Culture Lag
 
In 1922, the sociologist William Ogburn coined the term culture lag. Culture lag refers to the tendency for changes
in material and nonmaterial culture to occur at different rates. Ogburn proposed that, in general, changes in
nonmaterial culture tend to lag behind changes in material culture, including technological advances.
 
Technology progresses at a rapid rate, but our feelings and beliefs about it, part of our nonmaterial culture, lag
behind our knowledge of how to enact technological change.
 
Example:
Though the technology that allows people to meet online has existed for years, an understanding of what the
proper conduct is in an online “dating” situation lags behind the knowledge of how to use the technology. No
definite answers exist to many important questions: How long should people talk over the internet before meeting
in person? What is the right interval of response time between emails? New technology has brought with it new
questions and uncertainties.
 
Cultural Diffusion
Cultural diffusion is the process whereby an aspect of culture spreads throughout a culture or from one culture to
another.
 
Example:
In the United States in the early 1990s, only people who needed to be available in emergencies, such as doctors,
carried cell phones. Today, every member of a family may have his or her own cell phone. In some developing
nations, where standard telephone lines and other communications infrastructures are unreliable or nonexistent,
cell phones have been welcomed enthusiastically, as they provide people with an effective communication tool.
 
Global Diffusion
Many aspects of American culture, such as McDonald’s hamburgers and Coca-Cola, have been diffused to other
countries, and food items from other countries have become diffused throughout the United States. Sushi, for
example, is now available in grocery stores in many parts of the country, and pizza can be found almost
everywhere in the United States.